Guy Fawkes: Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Guy Fawkes
Bridgeman Art Library

The Conspirators
The Gunpowder Plot associated with Fawkes is traced to a small group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who was third in the line of succession. In this engraving of eight of the 13 conspirators, Fawkes is third from the right. In May 1604, Catesby devised the Gunpowder Plot to kill James and as many Members of Parliament as possible. At a meeting at the Duck and Drake Inn, Catesby outlined his plan to Fawkes, Thomas Percy, John Wright and Thomas Wintour. They became the first to agree under oath to join the conspiracy.

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